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Самарский Медико-технический лицей
Научно-практическая конференция учащихся
Секция: Английский язык
The American Dream like a social phenomenon and the possibility of it's realization in Russia.
Ниц Маргарита Андреевна
10 медицинский
Самарский Медико-технический лицей
Научный руководитель Несмелова Елена Борисовна
Самара 2007
Contents
1. Introduction..................................................................................3
2. The American Dream like a social phenomenon........................................4
3. Criticism if the American dream............................................................7
4. The Russian mentality and the "Russian dream".......................................8
5. The comparative analysis of values of the American and Russian young men............................................................................................10
6. Conclusion...................................................................................15
7. References...................................................................................16
Introduction
The United States of America nowadays holds leading positions in the most important parts of business, economics and scientific explorations in the western world. A country that inspired many appellations - "Land of Opportunity", "Melting Pot", "God's country" is still referred to people as a land of superlatives - "the richest", "the greatest", "the most". The American's style of life, which is based on the idea of realization of the American dream, becomes more and spread all over the world. America's culture, formed not long times ago, has already extended along many countries.
The Russian Federation is not the exception as during the period of the last 16 years Russian traditional culture has changed much because of Western one. After perestroika, when the borders became opened and the Western civilization burst into our country, many Russian people began taking the style of life and habits of citizens of foreign countries and adopting them to ours. The greatest influence had the USA. Many young people were impressed by the original and sometimes inadmissible for a soviet citizen way of life in America, by the wealth of American citizens, by their rights and freedoms. They wanted to reach the same prosperity and that's why they began spontaneously copying different aspects of American culture. This brought lots of pluses: the people became more determined and ambitious, they got acquainted with modern techniques, and people got the opportunity of communicating with foreigners that broadened their outlook. That was the useful influence, bur there was also the bad one. Very often young people couldn't take right from wrong that lead to very unpleasant consequences. In the 90's there was a rapidly increasing number of addicts, AIDS sick persons, teenager's pregnancies and crimes. Nowadays the situation in Russia is not the same, but the problem of Western, especially American influence is still actual.
In my work I will find out the core of the term "American Dream" and will find out the possibility of its realization in nowadays Russian reality. I will also compare the perspectives on life and interests of young Americans and Russians in order to find out if they are common or not.
I .The American dream like a social phenomenon
The American Dream is a subjective term usually implying a meaningful, successful and satisfying life. This term usually implies financial security and material comfort, but can also imply a dream of fame, exceeding social, ethnic, or class boundaries, or simply living a fulfilling life. Perceptions of the American dream are usually framed in terms of American capitalism, its associated meritocracy, and the freedoms guaranteed by the U.S. Bill of Rights.
The term is not easily defined, and has subjective meaning to many who claim it. The American Dream is often associated with immigration, as the dream of religious freedom, economic prosperity, and meritocracy has historically driven immigrants to the United States. The term is used by many modern Americans to signify success in life as a result of hard work (as in, "living [or pursuing] the American Dream").
The origin of the American Dream, a term coined by James Truslow Adams in his book "The Epic of America" (1931), stems from the departure in government and economics from the models of the Old World. This allowed unprecedented freedom, especially the possibility of dramatic upward social mobility. Additionally, from the American Revolutionary War well into the later half of the nineteenth century, many of America's physical resources were unclaimed and held out the promise of land ownership and lucky investment in land or industry. The development of the Industrial Revolution combined with the great natural resources of the enormous and as yet unsettled (by Europeans) continent created the possibility of achieving wealth and transitioning "from rags to riches".
The terrible living conditions in Europe and the hope of a better standard of living in America led to the migration of hundreds of thousands to the new world. Impoverished western Europeans escaping the Irish potato famines in Ireland, the Highland clearances in Scotland and the aftermath of Napoleon in the rest of Europe came to America to escape a poor quality of life at home. They wanted to embrace the financial mobility and constitutional freedoms that existed in the United States.
The Industrial Revolution was one of the great forces that developed the American Dream. The Industrial Revolution, amidst all the government corruption of the Gilded Era, resulted in the creation of hundreds of thousands of jobs. The development of big business, the Transcontinental Railroad, and the increase in oil production greatly increased the American standard of living. "Rags to riches" stories of business tycoons like Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller led to the belief that if you had talent, intelligence, and a willingness to work extremely hard, you were more likely to live a good life. The stories of many successful people of that time seem to be fairy tales but they are truthful lifestories.
The best example is John Davison Rockefeller, Sr. (July 8, 1839 - May 23, 1937), an American industrialist who played a prominent role in the early oil industry with the founding of Standard Oil (ExxonMobil is the largest of its descendants. ).He was second of six children and his father was was a traveling salesman of dubious products, such as "cancer cures," a philanderer and bigamist. 16-year-old Rockefeller began his career as an apprentice bookkeeper at Hewitt & Tuttle for 50 cents a day. His seriousness, diligence, and honesty led to steadily increasing responsibilities and pay over the next two years. Nevertheless, Rockefeller reached the point where he felt he was no longer getting paid according to his contribution and, in 1859, left to form his own produce commission business with a partner, Maurice Clark. Clark & Rockefeller quickly became a successful firm, and its partners accumulated enough capital to invest in other Cleveland businesses. His business became more and more successfull. In the early 1870s,he established Standard Oil company, which soon become one of the largest shippers of oil and kerosene in the country.Over a forty-year period, Rockefeller built Standard Oil into the largest and most profitable company in the world, and was for a time the richest man in the world. His business career was controversial. He was bitterly attacked by muckraking journalists; his company was convicted in federal court of monopolistic practices and broken up in 1911. He spent his last forty years focused on philanthropic pursuits, primarily related to education and public health, eventually giving away most of his wealth. Rockefeller and many other businessmen reached thir wellfare only by their hard work and intelligence.
Jack London in his novel "Martin Iden" also described a character of an illiterate "a self made man" sailor, a hardworking, determined, persistant person, who was not afraid of any type of work, energetic and composed,so that he could learn the everithing from reading to philosophy by himself that's why became a famous wrighter and reached fame wealth.
Silicon Valley initiated the Computer Age and the dot-com boom. Companies such as Hewlett-Packard, eBay, Yahoo!, Intel, Google, Apple, and Oracle remain headquartered there.
In the 20th century, the American Dream had its challenges. The Great Depression caused widespread hardship during the Thirties, and was almost a reverse of the dream for those directly affected. Racial instability did not disappear, and in some parts of the country racial violence was almost commonplace.
The comfortable, not very hard life in the family circle became the main idea of the American Dream in the 50s of the XX century. Since the end of World War II, young American families have sought to live in relative comfort and stability in the suburbs that were built up around major cities. This led to the rise of the relatively conservative 1950s, when many pursued the "perfect family" as a part or consequence of the American Dream. This period was shattered by a new generation of young people who embraced the hippie values of the 1960s, denying traditional values such as the American Dream. In modern times, the American Dream is seen as a possible accomplishment, as all children can go to school and get an education. Though the drive to it waned during those years, the dream itself has never died out.
In the 1990s, the pursuit of an even newer version of the American Dream could be seen in the Dot-com boom. People in the United States, as well as the world poured their energy into the new Gold Rush - the Internet. It was again driven by the same faith that by one's ingenuity and hard work, anyone can become successful in America. Ordinary people started new companies from their garages and became millionaires. This new chapter of the American Dream attracted many entrepreneurial people from China and India and elsewhere to Silicon Valley to form startups, and seek fortune in America.
Another recent example of the American Dream being realized is the case of Tamir Sapir. An immigrant from the former Soviet republic of Georgia, Sapir arrived in America in 1973 and started as a taxicab driver in New York City. Saving up to buy an electronics store, he catered primarily to Russian clientele. Eventually he made contacts with the Soviet contingent to the United Nations in New York, and traded electronics for oil contracts, which he then sold to American companies. Investing the profits in Manhattan real estate, he became a billionaire by 2002, less than thirty years after arriving penniless in America. Like many rags to riches stories, his is a unique one that would be hard to replicate. Yet today Sapir is becoming known as America's "billionaire cabbie".
Criticism of the American Dream
Nowadays the American Dream is often regarded as wrong conception of style of life, and it's ideas - errneous as it propagandizes low moral standards. The argumets proving this point of view are the following:
* It propogandizes consumerism and economic materialism. Its emphasis on material possessions as a way of finding happiness is seen by critics as being somewhat superficial or meaningless. Many literary works level exactly that criticism at the American Dream, such as Arthur Miller's play Death of a Salesman. The play, a classic American work of literature, finds the main character Willy Loman struggling to come to grips with the fact that his American Dream is unattainable. * The American Dream is criticized as promoting an ethic of selfishness and promoting social inequality. * The American Dream is criticized as a useful ideal for social control by encouraging people to spend their time and energy working hard for material possessions rather than working to change the balance of power and the way that society is structured. * The concept of the American Dream also ignores other factors of success such as luck, family, language, and wealth one is born into. Proponents of the dream argue that starting wealth is irrelevant because of the belief that there is no level of poverty from which one cannot rise with hard work and determination. * Some consider the American dream to be having two children and living in a house with financial security. Currently this iconic middle class lifestyle is however not lived by the majority of the population but rather only by a sizable minority.
* Certain laws allow the wealthy to keep more of their money. For example, the recent cuts in the estate tax and capital gains taxes may work to further solidify wealth once it is earned. A counter to this argument are studies that show that "great family wealth" is nearly always lost in three generations. * It can be difficult to successfully start a business. One reason is because of the economies of scale necessary to survive in a commoditized market, although many markets today are not commoditized. * Research has suggested that features like IQ and extroversion may give certain people some advantages over others when it comes to making smart business decisions or career choices, and in establishing a social network. * As in other countries, actions considered ethical vary between Americans. For example, a CEO who sees certain stock options as excessive monetary gain would find it harder to attain great wealth than one with a different viewpoint. * The American dream may have an overtone and influence in promoting materialism philosophy with herd instinct effects. II The Russian mentality.
The way of development of Russian culture, forming of it's social and political thought, Russian ideals have always been quiet different from the western one.
Original criterion of national originality, the special formula of "Russian" became "a mysterious Russian soul ". And what the depth of this mysteriousness is verified by? It is told, that it "by arshin can't be measured ". The Russian soul is often thought to be many-sided and rich. Distinctive and most appreciable features of Russian national character were formed not in a one day, and developed centuries, absorbing in itself such epoch, as unification of Russia, the Mongolian yoke, heathenism and acceptance of Christianity, board of monarchs and arrival of the Soviet authority.
The basic, deepest character trait of Russian people is its religiousness and the search of absolute goods connected with it, e, such goods, which can be found only in God's Empire. The perfect goods without any impurity of a harm and imperfections exists in God's Empire because it consists of the persons who are quite carrying out in their behavior two precepts of Jesus Christ: love the God more than itself and fellow creature, as itself. Members of God's Empire are absolutely free from egoism and they create absolute values - moral goods, beauty, knowledge of true, the blessing indivisible and ineradicable, serving to all world. The relative blessings- those, using of which for one persons brings prosperity, and for others do harm, do not combine with the idea of God's Empire. The pursuit of them makes the main maintenance of a life of a persons with egoistical character, i. е. persons who do not possess the perfect love to the God and prefer itself to others.
Search of absolute goods is not meant, certainly, that by the Russian person, for example the commoner is meaningly attracted to God's Empire, having in the mind a complex system of doctrines about it. Fortunately, in a soul of a person there is a force attracting to goods and condemning angrily, irrespective of a degree of education and its knowledge: this force - a voice of conscience. The Russian person possesses especially sensitive distinction of good and harm; he sharp-sightedly notices imperfection of all acts and customs, being never satisfied with them and never stops to search the perfect goods. According to Dostoevsky, simple, having little education people can reach high spiritual life. The best example is the book "Frank stories of the wanderer to the confessor ". Dostoevsky finds synthesis and end of all kind properties of Russian people in its Christian spirit. "Perhaps, the only love of russian people is the Christ ", - Dostoevsky thinks. Having recognized sanctity as the maximum value, aspiring to absolute goods, Russian people, Dostoevsky says, does not erect terrestrial relative values, for example a private property, in a rank of "sacred" principles.
To number of primary properties of Russian people, together with religiousness, search of absolute goods and will power, are concerned the love of freedom and its maximum expression - freedom of spirit. This property is closely connected with search of absolute goods. Askoldov in his clause " Dostoevsky's Religious and ethical value " says, that the person as the individual essence, demands that all norms of a life have to receive his personal sanction, i. е. they have to be selected and estimated either thinking, or irrational moral intuition, or experience. Therefore the strongly pronounced person often enters the conflict to external conditions, can even commit a crime "in the search of higher rules of behavior". Dostoevsky represents character of Russian people, daringly putting on trial values and generally accepted norms. The examples of such people are Raskolnikov, Stavrogin and Ivan Karamazov.
Owing to free search of the truth and courageous criticism of values, makes difficult to Russian people to come to an agreement with each other for a common cause. Jokers speak, that when three Russian will begin to argue about any question, as a result there will be even not three, but four opinions because someone from participants of dispute will hesitate between two opinions. In the organizations based for any common cause, easily arise splits, form different parties, circles; in political parties - some fractions.
In a public life love of freedom of Russians is expressed in propensity to anarchy, in pushing away from the state. K. Aksakov has developed the characteristic doctrine for Slavophiles about the state. It approves, that Russian people sharply distinguishes "their Land" and the state. The "Land" is a community; it lives according to the internal, moral truth. Shubart writes: "to Russian and in general to Slaves is peculiar the aspiration to freedom, not only freedom from a yoke of foreign people, but also to freedom from fetters of all passing and transitory ".
Contempt for narrow-mindedness, for bourgeois concentration on the property, on earthly blessings, on that "to live as all", to have good conditions, a dress, an apartment is an extremely characteristic feature of Russian society. Herzen, Dostoevsky, L.Tolstoj, having seen a life of the Western Europe, with disgust describe its petty-bourgeois character. Ivanov-Razumnik has written three-volume, rather detailed work "History of Russian public idea. Individualism and narrow-mindedness in the Russian literature in a life of XIX century." The term "narrow-mindedness", according to Ivanov-Razumnik, includes such conceptions as collective mediocrity, a moderation and accuracy, hatred to bright individuality. Lev Tolstoy at the beginning of his literary activity in the story "Lucerne" has described egoistical isolation in itself of the rich people living in magnificent hotel with great indignation. In blossoming of the art creativity he has stigmatized narrow-mindedness, having represented in "War and peace" Berg's and his wife's persevering diligence "to live as all". In his "Dead souls" N. V. Gogol depicts a brilliant character of Chichikov, a person, whose aim of life was the pursuit of richness. The reader can see the sarcasm the author speaks not only about the main character, but about the whole Russian nobility and officialdom, i.e. about the ruling rich classes.
Unlike others, "Russian dream" includes such rare component as social. The main Russian question formulated by Dostoevsky is: "And whether there is all happiness of the world of tear of the unique children?" Europeans, especially Americans, are not really interested in humanism; they just want to seem philanthropic. As Russia has always had ideas about public happiness the communism, with it's ideas of equality of all people and their well-being because of collective labour, in Russia has been programmed. III The comparative analysis of values of American and Russian young men
* Purpose: To make a social questioning among young Russian and American people in the age of 14 - 19 years about their values and plans on future in order to compare them and to find out the possibility of realization of the American Dream in Russian reality.
* Tasks: 1) To make a social inquiry among Russian young men
2) To make a social inquiry among American young people.
3) To compare the results of both tests.
4) To make a conclusion.
1. Methods of research. In the work was used a method of social questioning. The Russian and American young people were asked the same questions, concerning their plans on future life, their values and moral standards. In addition the Russians were asked special questions about their preferences of a choice of production of a masscult concerning the country of the manufacturer. The interrogation of Russian young people was made in the gymnasium №11 and Art school №1. The Americans were asked on the Internet.
The questions the respondents were asked are the following.
1. Choose the most important for you vital value:
a) Family
b) Love
c) Freedom
d) Friendship
e) Money
g) Career
h) Self-reliance
i) Success
j) Education
k) Health
l) Good luck
The results: (number of people)
ValuesRussiansAmericansFamily75Love87Freedom45Friendship63Money68Career48Self-reliance34Success47Education73Health85Good luck46
2. What is the most important thing you need to do in the nearest 15 years?
The most popular answers are (in number of persons):
PlanRussians AmericansTo success in my career717To establish a family169To get a good education1310To earn money2324To travel round the world21
Russian young people's answers
American young people's answers
The special questions, considering the attitude of Russian young people to American culture, and to America in general were the following:
1)- Name your three favourite films and the country of the manufacturer.
- Do you prefer to listen to domestic or foreign music?
- Do you prefer books of the American or Russian writers?
About preference of a choice of film-production it was found out, that 63 % of the interrogated teenagers choose the American cinema for viewing. But, despite of this choice, the group of teenagers (46 %) says, that if in Russia high-quality film-production was made, they, certainly, would look our cinema was made. 31 % interrogated prefer only Russian films, and these are films of Soviet times. The remained 6 % can't choose the answer.
43 % of young people have chosen the American singers and the American groups. 28 % are declined aside European musical production and only 29 % listen to exclusively Russian music.
The Russian young people answered a question on preference on book production as follows. 62% read only Russian literature. And in the majority it is the classical literature. 22 % choose foreign writers, 16 % from them prefer the American literature (Steel, Sheldon, King). At this part of interrogated the style of a fantasy uses success.
2) In order to understand what do Russian young people think about the influence of the American culture and the American Dream upon them they were asked the following questions:
- Whether the American culture influences personally on you? -How do you think, whether there is an Americanization of Russian culture? In what degree?
-Do you agree with the main idea of the American Dream?
The majority of young people (83 %) are assured that there is a strongly pronounced process of penetration of the American masscult in the Russian youth subculture, i.е. process of Americanization. Though 62 % of interrogated speak that they don't feel on themselves influence of the American culture, in their answers the following idea is traced: the USA at the given stage of historical development takes the leading positions, including in manufacture movie and musical production.
The answers referring to the American Dream have divided approximately 50:50. 54% of people say that its idea is right as we live in the epoch of capitalism and only a person himself can reach success in every sphere of life and prosperity that is the main aim of life. Others (45%) say that American Dream propagandizes egoism, the people who live according its principles often forget about humanity, friendship, family relations and kindness. According to the results we come to a conclusion that American and Russian people's values are still quiet different. Russian young people put an emphasis on such aspects of life as family, friendship. They are also interested in getting a perfect education, to be erudite persons, but they do not forget that it is impossible to live in modern society without money. Americans, on the contrary, are mostly interested in getting success in their career, earning a big sum of money. But they are not much concerned in studying hard and getting high education.
Speaking about the impact of the American culture on Russian one it is necessary to note a high degree of influence of the American masscult on subculture of the Russian young people. Traditional values of the Russian culture are steady, and the hobby for the American culture is explained by aspiration for "the present", fluidity and variability of a youth fashion. Conclusion.
The American culture impacts greatly on other subcultures and the Russian one is not the exception. Mostly this influence becomes apart among young people in the sphere of a masscult as most of teenagers prefer the American films, music, games. This can be explained by the better quality of American production and its entertainment character. The young people recognize the penetration of the American culture and they see it as normal, appropriate process as the USA nowadays holds world leading positions in many spheres.
But the core of the American culture and the American Dream itself (half of respondents even criticize its idea) haven't integrated in the Russian traditional culture. This proves the statistics. It reflects that the main part of traditional Russian values hasn't changed: the main part of young people prefer national classical literature, Russian society is still a patriarchal country, regarding family the most important vital value, respecting friendship, education, healthy style of life. Americans, on the contrary do not attach importance to family, friendship, education. They put emphasis on success, career, material comfort, fame. But, it is necessary to say, that capitalism has changed the attitude of Russians to money, as both, Americans and Russians, consider earning money one the most important thing. To sum up, it is possible to say that nowadays, in view of economical and social situation in Russia and because of Russian mentality, the American Dream can't be realized in our country.
References
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